The full redacted Mueller report has been released by the Department of Justice. The L.A. Times is reading it and posting its findings. The report can be downloaded here.

Robert S. Mueller III’s office considered charging Donald Trump Jr. and other campaign officials with violating campaign finance laws in connection with the June 9 meeting with several Russians at Trump Tower, but ultimately decided not to do so, the report says.

That meeting was preceded by an offer of information about Hillary Clinton passed along from Russians, which arguably violated laws against accepting anything of value from foreign sources, the report said.

“There are reasonable arguments that the offered information would constitute a ‘thing of value,’” the report says.

But prosecutors decided against bringing charges, saying they could not prove Donald Trump Jr. and others intended to violate the law in agreeing to the meeting.

Mueller’s lawyers also doubted they could prove the information was valuable enough to convince a jury to convict them, the report says. The information provided at the meeting by Natalia Veselnitskaya, a Russian lawyer with Kremlin connections, turned out to have nothing to do with Clinton, and Donald Trump Jr. later described the 20-minute meeting as useless.

Rob Goldstone, a friend of Donald Trump Jr.'s who had made the original contact, had promised that the Russian was bringing incriminating information about Clinton. Instead, she spent much of the meeting lobbying the Trump campaign officials to lift the Magnitsky Act, a 2012 U.S. law bitterly criticized by the Kremlin that freezes assets of Russian officials responsible for human rights abuses, the report says.

While she was speaking, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner was messaging Paul Manafort, the campaign chairman, on his phone that the meeting was a “waste of time,” the report describes. He arranged to leave early by having his assistant call him “to give him an excuse to leave,” the report said

9:55 a.m. | David Cloud

Trump reacted to special counsel appointment with fury. ‘This is the end of my Presidency’

The report describes President Trump’s initial reaction to learning Robert S. Mueller III had been appointed on May 17, 2017, to investigate the potential links between his campaign and the Russians.

The president was meeting that day with Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions, the attorney general’s chief of staff and White House counsel Don McGahn, interviewing potential candidates for FBI director.

Sessions stepped out of the room to take a call from Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod Rosenstein and returned to inform Trump that Rosenstein had tapped Mueller as special counsel.

Trump reacted with fury. “Oh, my God,” Trump said, according to notes taken by Sessions’ chief of staff. “This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I’m fucked.”

The president became irate and berated Sessions for recusing himself from overseeing the Russia investigation.

“How could you let this happen, Jeff?”

He told Sessions he had let him down and that he was supposed to have protected Trump. “Everyone tells me if you get one of these independent counsels it ruins your presidency,” Trump continued.

“It takes years and years and I won’t be able to do anything. This is the worst thing that ever happened to me.”

8:22 a.m. | Del Quentin Wilber

Here is an image of every single page of the Mueller report

More than one-third of the report’s pages contain at least one blacked-out word. Most of the pages have no redactions. Some are almost entirely blacked out. See the full image>>

Los Angeles Times

This is what sparked the infamous Comey-Trump dinner

Dan Coats, the director of National Intelligence, was at a dinner with Trump the night before the president met then-FBI Director James Comey and asked for his loyalty.

The president asked Coats what he should do with Comey, according to the Mueller report. No one advocated firing Comey, Coats told the special counsel, but the general consensus was not positive.

Coats urged the president to meet face-to-face with Comey before making a decision to retain him, the report says. Trump the next day invited Comey over for dinner at the White House.

9:42 a.m. | Del Quentin Wilber

Portions of report on WikiLeaks are heavily redacted

The Department of Justice heavily redacted the findings on how the Trump campaign interacted with WikiLeaks, the anti-secrecy website that published thousand of hacked Democratic Party emails originally stolen by Russian operatives.

The section of the report covering “Contacts with the Campaign about WikiLeaks” is largely blacked out. Among the information cut out of the public version of the report is Trump’s response when his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, alerted him that WikiLeaks was releasing stolen Democratic National Committee emails.

The Department of Justice also redacted the section of the report recounting Trump’s conversations with his then-campaign manager Paul Manafort about the stolen emails. The report recounts how Trump told Manafort’s deputy, Rick Gates, that more damaging information from Wikileaks would be coming, but administration officials blacked out most of the paragraph that presumably explains how or why Trump knew that.

The administration also redacted a lengthy section of the report involving informal Trump advisor Ted Malloch and rightwing conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi, who told investigators he had at least six phone conversations with Trump.

The report reveals that the men knew ahead of time that WikiLeaks would be posting the hacked emails of John Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman. They discussed over the course of multiple Facetime conversations how the emails “would be released prior to Election Day and would be helpful to the Trump campaign.”

In a conversation in late summer of 2016, Corsi told Malloch that following the release of the emails “’we’ were going to be in the driver’s seat.”

9:37 a.m. | Evan Halper

Trump saw allegations as an attack on his presidential win

Much of Trump’s troubles, according to the report, came down to his insecurity about the legitimacy of his election.

Hope Hicks, his longtime confidante, told the special counsel that Trump viewed allegations of Russian meddling as taking away from his victory.

Sean Spicer, the president’s first press secretary, said Trump believed “the Russia story was developed to undermine the legitimacy of his election.”

His deputy campaign chairman told the special counsel that the Russia probe was “an attack on his win,” according to the report.

The report says the Russian operation “favored” Trump’s campaign and “disparaged” Hillary Clinton, saying the “Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome.”

9:11 a.m. | Del Quentin Wilber

Read the Mueller report

FBI was investigating Flynn before his talks with Kislyak

Michael Flynn, the president’s first national security advisor, was on the FBI’s radar before his controversial conversations in December 2016 with Sergei Kislyak, Russia’s ambassador in Washington.

Flynn later lied to the FBI about those conversations, which were intercepted by U.S. intelligence agencies conducting surveillance of the Russian envoy. Flynn, who was forced to step down as national security advisor after less than a month, has pleaded guilty to providing false statements to FBI agents in an interview conducted in his White House office several days after Trump took office.

Mueller discloses that the FBI “had opened an investigation of Flynn based on his relationship with the Russian government” even before he was caught on the intercepted conversations. Flynn’s discussions with the diplomat “became a key component of that investigation,” the report says.

It does not elaborate on what sparked the FBI interest, though Flynn, a retired Army general who had headed the Defense Intelligence Agency, was paid more than $40,000 to speak at the 10th anniversary gala of RT, Russia’s state-sponsored TV network, in 2015. Flynn sat next to Russian President Vladimir Putin at the event.

9:23 a.m. | Del Quentin Wilber

14 criminal cases were referred to other jurisdictions

The special counsel’s report identified 14 criminal cases that were referred to other jurisdictions because they were outside the scope of Mueller’s investigation, including cases involving Trump’s former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen, former Obama counsel Gregory Craig, and 12 others whose description was redacted.

9:01 a.m. | Janet Hook

Mueller worried that a Trump subpoena would create a long delay

Mueller decided not to subpoena the president to provide testimony when Trump declined to provide answers to written questions about obstruction of justice, limiting his answers only to questions of collusion.

The special counsel decided not to try to subpoena the president, Mueller wrote, because he worried it would create a long delay in the “late stage in our investigation.”

They also determined that they had gathered a wealth of information about Trump’s actions, and prosecutors felt confident they could “make certain assessments without the president’s testimony.”

8:33 a.m. | Del Quentin Wilber

Trump’s staff didn’t carry out his orders

“The President’s efforts to influence the investigation were mostly unsuccessful, but that is largely because the persons who surrounded the President declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests.”

— From Page 158 of the Mueller report

Barr repeats Trump’s ‘no collusion’ catch-phrase

Barr confirmed at Thursday morning’s news conference that Russia did seek to interfere with the 2016 presidential election, but said “the special counsel found no collusion” between the Trump campaign and Russians involved in that effort. His confirmation of the Russian effort to interfere with the election contrasts with President Trump’s repeated statements that have questioned whether Russia was involved.

At his news conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2018, Trump said that Putin had denied any involvement and that he was willing to believe those denials.

“The Russian government sought to interfere in our election process,” Barr said, but the Russians “did not have the cooperation of President Trump or the Trump campaign.” He repeated that top-line finding several times: “The special counsel found no collusion by any Americans.”

Robert Mueller sent formal request to testify

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) sent a letter to special counsel Robert Mueller on Thursday morning formally asking him to testify before the committee “as soon as possible — but, in any event, no later than May 23.”

Atty. Gen. William Barr said in his news conference, “I have no objection to Robert Mueller personally testifying.”

7:41 a.m. | Sarah Wire

It is clear Congress and the American people must hear from Special Counsel Robert Mueller in person to better understand his findings. We are now requesting Mueller to appear before @HouseJudiciary as soon as possible. pic.twitter.com/Mmo6PA4KPt

2020 candidates criticize Barr

Some of the Democrats’ 2020 presidential candidates immediately joined in criticism of Atty. William Barr for a news conference that seemed focused on presenting President Trump’s point of view rather than a balanced summary of the Mueller report’s findings.

“The American people deserve the truth,’’ tweeted Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey. “Not spin from a Trump appointee.”

Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar called for Mueller to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee — a hearing that would be riddled with 2020 political dynamics. Members of the panel include Klobuchar, Booker and Sen. Kamala Harris of California.

Barr said special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s report detailed 10 specific actions by Trump that could have been considered efforts to obstruct justice. Mueller did not reach a “traditional prosecutorial judgment” about whether obstruction took place, Barr said, adding that he had concluded that Trump had not acted in a criminal fashion.

Barr: No objections to Mueller testifying

Barr said he has “no objections to Robert Mueller personally testifying” to Congress about his report. Congressional Democrats have called for Mueller to testify.

Barr discloses that earlier this week "the President's personal counsel requested and were given the opportunity to read a final version of the redacted report before it was publicly released. He says consistent with Ethics in Govt act.

Pelosi and Schumer are calling for Mueller to testify before Congress

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) called on Thursday for special counsel Robert S. Mueller III to publicly testify before Congress.

“We believe the only way to begin restoring public trust in the handling of the Special Counsel’s investigation is for Special Counsel Mueller himself to provide public testimony in the House and Senate as soon as possible,” they said in a released statement.

Atty. Gen. William P. Barr is already expected to testify to the House and Senate judiciary committees on May 1 and May 2.

What are we waiting to learn?

Why didn’t Mueller reach a conclusion on whether President Trump obstructed justice? What evidence of obstruction did Mueller find? Why did Mueller give up on interviewing Trump?

In a four-page letter based on Robert S. Mueller III’s final report, Atty. Gen. William P. Barr told Congress on March 24 that the special counsel did not find evidence that President Trump or his campaign conspired with Russians during the 2016 election.

Mueller did not determine whether Trump obstructed justice, which was another focus of the investigation, yet he concluded that the evidence “does not exonerate” the president, Barr wrote in his letter to lawmakers.

The attorney general, however, decided the facts don’t show Trump committed a crime by trying to interfere with the Russia probe, a judgment that Democrats have fiercely contested and that has fueled their efforts to see Mueller’s full report. Read the story>>

Chris Megerian

Read Atty. Gen. William P. Barr’s summary of Mueller’s conclusions

The Russia investigation is over, but Russian meddling in elections isn’t

Robert S. Mueller III’s report was an arduous task, but the truly hard part will be ensuring the Russians aren’t able to pull the same blueprint off the shelf and use it in future campaigns.

A review of court filings and independent studies, as well as interviews with experts, shows that no one should expect that the end of Mueller’s work means an end to Russian political meddling. Read the story>>

Russians gather at the grave of Josef Stalin outside the Kremlin in Moscow on March 5, the anniversary of the dictator's death.